VCP rant

[wonkaticket]

Use the print screen key on your keyboard, then paste into a photo program or Word etc. Adam.

John

[3-2-count]

FYI, I cancelled VCP a few weeks ago after being a member for years.
It's just not cost effective anymore for the information you receive imo.

[rhettyeakley]

I will never understand why BIN's or Best Offers that are accepted are not included. When did the Market price become synonomous with "at auction" only. If you go buy something at Wal-mart for a set price is that not what that item is currently selling for? IMO every transacted card should be included or you are only getting part of the picture. Don't give me that it is easier to manipuate because you can shill an auction just as easy. I have never been a member of VCP and probably never will for the reason stated above.

[sycks22]

There are a good amount of auction houses that are not currently updated in VCP: Goodwin, CSA, Baggers, Heritage and more. Going to all the sites that have an area where you can find previous records is almost more useful. I still subscribe to VCP to save some time on the more commonly sold cards (Mantle's, etc) as stated above by someone.

[terjung]

VCP has been giving diminishing returns to me and I too cancelled my membership after being a firm believer for years. The lack of BIN data, the loss of some auction house data, and the increase in price all contributed to my decision.

In the past, VCP provided a great service to me, but it is no longer is a "must have" for me for a variety of reasons.

[kcohen]

Someone once told me, and I cannot verify that this in fact the case, that VCP must somehow acquire the rights to mine data and only has the right to certain data. If such is the case, the fact that certain sales are not included is not because they willingly and consciencely exclude them.

Has anyone else ever heard this (other than from me)?

[steve B]

But you can't shill an auction to a lower price. And that's the bit of price manipulation that would really hurt if all BINs were included. 4-5 fake sales over a couple months to drive the average down, negotiate a couple purchases based on the lower average. Then shill or generate a few more fake sales to raise the average and sell above average since "it's taking off".


Steve B

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

I will never understand why BIN's or Best Offers that are accepted are not included. When did the Market price become synonomous with "at auction" only. If you go buy something at Wal-mart for a set price is that not what that item is currently selling for? IMO every transacted card should be included or you are only getting part of the picture. Don't give me that it is easier to manipuate because you can shill an auction just as easy. I have never been a member of VCP and probably never will for the reason stated above.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

I will never understand why BIN's or Best Offers that are accepted are not included. When did the Market price become synonomous with "at auction" only. If you go buy something at Wal-mart for a set price is that not what that item is currently selling for? IMO every transacted card should be included or you are only getting part of the picture. Don't give me that it is easier to manipuate because you can shill an auction just as easy. I have never been a member of VCP and probably never will for the reason stated above.

+1

Larry

[Rich Klein]

I could have sworn that Bobby and I discussed that a few years ago and he started putting in BIN"s slightly after our chat. They are sales and for the 99 percent part, legit.

ETopps was another issue; but since Bobby was not covering ETopps, did not affect his service. The ETopps Tony Banks was especially messed up in pricing IIRC.

Rich

VCP records both BIN's and auctions. I use them as well as data I gather from watching sales both here, eBay, and other sources. I believe this was discussed before and it's a keyword issue for the spiders searching out this data via the web. Problem is if you don't do your research dont blame VCP for not doing it for you. I don't agree with the fact I spend X amount every year for me to continually research my cards when I have paid for a service that claims to do it for me but it is what it is. For as little as I use it now I don't think it's worth half of what I pay a yr but before I could cancel renewal I got charged. Oh well there is always next yr. Maybe this thread will light a well needed fire to get the system fixed.

Bobby has a great product and it is still fairly new. It takes time and money to make anything work. Also I wonder how many people have ever contacted him in regards to this issue? One complaint every now and then may not have warranted a red flag to be raised and looked at. All we can do is tell him the issues and hope he handles them. I wish him all the best on his business.

[glchen]

I'm just totally guessing here, and only Bobby can say when/if he decides to chime in, but does VCP get the data based on the listing title or just the item details on ebay? For example, a lot of sellers don't fill in the item details on the listing (which would include manufacturer, card, grade, etc), and perhaps that is why these are not being picked up by VCP. Or not sure if VCP parses in the listing in some other way.

[Leon]

My little auction company, B & L, used to allow VCP to mine our data. For our last auction Bobby told us there would be a fee to do it so we decided not to. Fewer houses let him use their info anymore. I am not sure of all of the reasoning.

[BobbyVCP]

Leon lets be fair here the fee was not from VCP it was from Seth the auction software person you use. And all Seth had to do was turn on the code we provided to him years ago when we started, something that takes him less then a minute. Sure we can come in at the end of the auction and scrap all the data and input it in our site. But the thing you are missing and this is the key is by having access to your auction as it starts and entering all your items live it then checks 3469 current members want lists for any items you have and they need. When it finds matches sends a email with link to your auction telling them a card they want is now available for them to bid and win.So by you not wanting to be part of the system and paying Seth his money how many potential buyers did you miss out on? And if those notices went out I think you would find a much better return to your consignors.

Whereas all the people using Bob from Simple there is no fee involved at all.

[E93]

I'm sure VCP is not perfect. Nothing is. But I have found it to be an incredibly valuable resource. I can't even say how many times over the membership fee has paid for itself by giving me info to avoid overpaying or undercharging on selling my items. On the few times I have needed assistance, Bobby has been quick and responsive. And for clarity's sake, I do not personally know Bobby. I have never met him. We have only had a handful of email interactions regarding my membership to VCP.
JimB

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BobbyVCP

Leon lets be fair here the fee was not from VCP it was from Seth the auction software person you use. And all Seth had to do was turn on the code we provided to him years ago when we started, something that takes him less then a minute. Sure we can come in at the end of the auction and scrap all the data and input it in our site. But the thing you are missing and this is the key is by having access to your auction as it starts and entering all your items live it then checks 3469 current members want lists for any items you have and they need. When it finds matches sends a email with link to your auction telling them a card they want is now available for them to bid and win.So by you not wanting to be part of the system and paying Seth his money how many potential buyers did you miss out on? And if those notices went out I think you would find a much better return to your consignors.

Whereas all the people using Bob from Simple there is no fee involved at all.

I believe this is Completely untrue from what I was told. I will find the emails in a few hours and post them. I have to run for a business issue right now.

[ZernialFan]

Being new, I did not know VCP was owned/supported by someone on the board.
But I do know that the buys were not BIN's. I 99.9% refuse to buy BIN on Ebay because they are generally X2, X3, X4 the going price of the card in the segment of the hobby I collect. I stick to auctions only. If I had known, I would have sent the info to VCP. I still have the info in my file, but do not remember which ones.

Charlie

[BobbyVCP]

We try our best to capture as much data as we can and there are circumstances where some fall through the cracks. We get notices from members about once a month for something we missed and verify the auction and add it to our system. In this case we had no way of verifying the results. I see that it happened looking at the screen shots he posted which he never sent to me to view. All he sent was a eBay ID that expired and showed me no proof it ever happened.

At the beginning of the year eBay decided to change their API system and of course as we all know about them they failed to tell their licensees about it so there was a time period we where not pulling all the data. Since then we were finally able to implement a workaround in March and the reports of missing transaction dropped dramatically.


We never want to get in a situation where we are posting results without the proof. We have always been here and available for all of our members needs and answer any question or fix any problem that should arise.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by BobbyVCP

In this case we had no way of verifying the results. I see that it happened looking at the screen shots he posted which he never sent to me to view. All he sent was a eBay ID that expired and showed me no proof it ever happened.

We never want to get in a situation where we are posting results without the proof. We have always been here and available for all of our members needs and answer any question or fix any problem that should arise.

Bobby,

Here was my email to you, word for word:
"I have a 1909 E90-1 American Caramel Eddie Plank SGC 50 (4) that I was considering selling. I went to VCP to look up what I paid for the card, but you guys don't list it. I bought this card on eBay on or around February 8, 2011. I paid $750 for this card and the eBay item number was 200564550761. Can you please tell me why you don't show it in the completed sales history? When I go to sell this card, it will give it more credibility if the card shows up in VCP. I have other information if you need any including screen shots."

I told you that I had screen shots to show the purchase. Did you ask for them? NO! Your reply was simply, "Since the auction is so old we can not verify it."